Cubs News: Maddon fires back at Hurdle's comments about Baez |
It appears that Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hurdle and Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon think differently about Javy Baez.
Baez had four homers during the series against the Pirates this week and showed some raw emotion and bat did some bat flips after his monster homers. Even threw his bat to the ground after a pop-up. Hurdle didn't care for much of it especially Baez throwing his bat in disgust. “Where is the respect for the game?" Hurdle said to the media earlier in the week. Maddon was asked about Hurdle's comments during pregame interviews on Friday morning and he had following comments. "I was surprised by it. I did not see it coming at all. Clint and I have had a great relationship. I don't understand why he did what he did. I do believe in not interfering with other groups. Whenever you want to be hypercritical of somebody, just understand you're pretty much revealing yourself and what your beliefs are more than you are evaluating somebody when you have not spent one second in that person's skin." Maddon says that Baez plays baseball with joy. "If you went to Puerto Rico, he fits in pretty well. You wouldn't really be all that concerned about how he plays the game or the methods. This is how we view things here. So for me, he plays with a joy." Great job by Maddon for standing up for his player and let's hope that Hurdle will just worry about his own team the rest of the season.
